March Madness bracket 2024: Why each of the 68 teams won't win a national championship

Don't let the Christmas classic by Andy Williams fool you, college basketball fans, because the most wonderful time of the year is right now. March Madness is in full swing. Selection Sunday just bestowed upon us the 68-team bracket that will be responsible for untold thousands of hours of workplace inefficiency in the next few weeks, and it's only a matter of hours until the games themselves will begin.

Most people look at their brackets through the power of positive thinking, and they make their picks accordingly. Houston has an elite defense. Purdue has the National Player of the Year. Blue is my favorite color. A tiger would beat a lobo in a fight. There's no right or wrong way to fill out your bracket, but here at FanSided, we'd hate for you to make your picks without considering all sides.

For that reason, we're not going to tell you why you should pick each team to cut down the nets; we're going to tell you why you shouldn't. Even the favorites have flaws, and with a one-and-done format where anything can happen, it's important to be prepared for anything. So embrace the madness, and when your favorite team goes home sometime in the next three weeks, don't say we didn't try to warn you!

1. Akron Zips

The Zips were the beneficiaries of a crucial late-game mistake in the MAC Tournament title game by their opponent, the Kent State Golden Flashes. Nevertheless, Akron earned its NCAA Tournament with three straight wins, but things are about to get much more difficult. Head coach John Groce's team was just 1-3 against NCAA Tournament teams this season, with a win over South Dakota State to open the season, but losses to Utah State, Drake and James Madison by over 12 points per defeat. They've yet to face a team like Creighton, and the Bluejays are an extremely rough matchup. Akron shoots only 32% from three on the season, and as a result, get most of their points from inside the arc. Creighton and three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner excel at limiting opponents from two, ranking in the top 20 in the nation in that category. It's difficult to see how Akron will score enough to keep up.

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama is a team that nobody will be excited to face in the tournament. The Crimson Tide can light it up, with senior guard Mark Sears leading the way at 21.1 points per game. There's just one problem: they can't stop anyone. According to KenPom, no team in the tournament with a top-10 seed has a worse adjusted defensive efficiency than the Tide, and that's just not a recipe for sustained postseason success. The first round against fellow defense-averse Charleston should be a shootout, but if Nate Oats and crew survive, they'll likely match up with St. Mary's and North Carolina in the next two rounds, both of whom are among the top 20 stingiest teams in the country.

3. Arizona Wildcats

Arizona has been one of the top teams in the country all season, but there are reasons for skepticism that they can translate that standing into a national title. The Wildcats had curious losses to Stanford and Oregon State, plus they were swept by the team that finished just behind them in the Pac-12, Washington State. Arizona has lost two of three to end the season, including to a massively disappointing USC squad, and if that doesn't dissuade you from penciling them onto the final line of your bracket, the fact that Tommy Lloyd has guided his team to top-two seeds the past two years and has nothing but a Sweet Sixteen appearance and a second-round exit to show for it should do the trick.

4. Auburn Tigers

Despite being a 4-seed, Auburn has the ingredients you look for in a team that can make a run. Equally efficient on both offense and defense, the Tigers showed their potential in winning the SEC Tournament. Why aren't they better than a 4-seed, then? The Tigers blew out nearly every team they faced this year, but when games got close, they tightened up. Until their SEC Tournament semifinal win over Mississippi State, the Tigers had gone 0-6 in games decided by single digits. Unless you're last year's UConn Huskies or the 2009 UNC Tar Heels, most teams don't just breeze through the bracket unchallenged. Will Bruce Pearl's team be able to close out the inevitable close game? The East bracket is loaded, so we should find out in a hurry.

5. Baylor Bears

It was only four years ago that Baylor won the national championship on the strength of terrific guard play and tenacious defense. The Bears have been very good since, but they haven't been able to achieve anywhere near the same postseason success, bowing out of the tournament in the second round the past two years to an 8-seed and a 6-seed. This year's team finished tied for third in the best conference in college basketball, the Big 12, but most national champions enter the tournament on a high note, and Baylor is on anything but, having gone just 4-4 in its last eight. To make matters worse, former star guard LJ Cryer transferred to Houston in the offseason, and he's a big reason why the Cougars finished four games clear of the Bears in the Big 12 standings and earned a 1-seed in the tournament.

6. Boise State Broncos

The Selection Committee certainly didn't do the Mountain West any favors, underseeding all six teams that made the tournament out of one of the country's deepest conferences. Now the Broncos face the unenviable task of needing to escape a play-in game in Dayton against Colorado, followed by six more wins to cut down the nets. No team has ever run such a gauntlet, and no 10-seed has ever won it all, with the 1985 eighth-seeded Villanova Wildcats still holding the record for lowest-seeded champ. Boise State's three-point defense is elite, but they have difficulty containing teams from inside the arc, something both Marquette and Kentucky, the Broncos' most likely opponents if they can get past Colorado and Florida, excel at.

7. BYU Cougars

BYU has been one of the nation's greatest success stories this year. Picked by most to finish near the bottom in its first year in the Big 12, the Cougars were more than ready for the challenge, finishing 10-8 in conference with a host of impressive wins, including a defeat of Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. BYU shocked the Big 12 with its impressive play, but it would be even more shocking if Mark Pope's team can navigate its way through the East region, which features many of the hottest teams in the country in UConn, Iowa State, and Auburn, all of whom won their respective conference tournaments.

8. Charleston Cougars

Just as we wrote about Alabama, Charleston's first-round opponent, the Cougars are talented offensively but lack the defensive fortitude needed to advance in the tournament. UAB is the only team better than a 15-seed to have a worse defensive efficiency than Charleston, and the Cougars falloff on that end of the floor is especially noticeable compared to last year when they ranked over 100 spots higher. Fans might remember that Charleston nearly ousted eventual national runner-up San Diego State in the first round last year before ultimately succumbing to the Aztecs by six, but there's a reason that team went 31-4 and this one went 27-7. Charleston is a talented team, but it's not as good as last year.